


half dead and nothing more to lose

by Lint



Series: My Serpentine [4]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Serpent Cheryl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-28
Updated: 2018-04-28
Packaged: 2019-04-28 20:00:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14456661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lint/pseuds/Lint
Summary: “The deepest pit in hell is reserved for those who betray.”She reaches up and flicks him on the nose.“I'll see you burn there, Judas.”





	half dead and nothing more to lose

 

 

Cheryl takes everyone who managed to escape the raid over to Thistlehouse.

 

Because it most certainly will be the last place the Sheriff, let alone anyone in Riverdale, will come to look for them. Someone let's out a low whistle in the middle of the foyer, while someone else snipes a comment about taking the girl out of the Northside, etc.

 

It's easy enough to ignore. She hasn't set foot on the property since she and Jason were eleven, and even then, she doesn't recall much about spending time here. It doesn't quite carry the same weight upon her mind as Thornhill did. Everything not draped under a tarp is covered in a thick coat of dust since the cleaning crew stopping coming around once her family imploded.

 

 

Toni, Betty, and Fangs all stand by her side while she thinks of how to proceed.

 

“Okay, that's enough!” she shouts, the grumbling coming to a halt, all eyes immediately focused on her. “Now, we don't know why the Sheriff decided to try and take us down, but it's a moot point. He did, and we're screwed.”

 

A few people laugh, but the faces remain sour.

 

“We don't know how many of us are sitting in a cell right now, but I'm willing to bet it's anyone who isn't here.”

 

There are nods and murmurs of agreement, as Cheryl glances back at Toni, who smiles her encouragement to keep going.

 

“So, we can stay here for the night. I severely doubt Keller is going to waste anymore resources chasing down the one he didn't get in cuffs-”

 

“Who put you in charge?”

 

The question comes from one of the older Serpents, who steps out from the crowd, and great. Cheryl can't remember his name. Why does everyone have to have some silly moniker she can't be bothered to register?

 

“I did,” she shoots back. “When you were standing around like frightened deer in headlights. When I lead us away from the cops undetected. When I got us a place to lay low until the heat dies down.”

 

“The heat?” Betty whispers from behind.

 

Cheryl's attention snaps to her cousin, who immediately hushes up.

 

“If you don't like it, or think you can do better, there's the door. Good luck, and don't bother to call for bail money.”

 

The older man, Jigsaw that's his name, looks like he wants to say more but thinks the better of it. Takes his place back with the others and waits for whatever comes next.

 

“We're not going to get any answers tonight,” Cheryl carries on. “So we can sleep it off, and figure something out in the morning.”

 

She waits for any objections, and when there is none, informs everyone there should be a stockpile of booze in the back lounge and they're welcome to it. She also lets them know that if anything is damaged or missing when the sun comes up, she will cut them.

 

-

 

“Okay, so I have to ask,” Toni inquires softly, turning to face Cheryl in the grand old canopy bed. “Why are you living with Betty's family, if you had this house in your back pocket?”

 

Cheryl's eyes immediately shoot to her slumbering cousin, passed out east to west at the foot of the enormous bed.

 

“The choice to live with Cousin Betty was the best of limited options. It was that, or be moved to a more permanent facility.”

 

“Oh,” is the only reply Toni can find, before her arms wrap around Cheryl, and a gentle kiss is placed into her hair.

 

“I dread to think what would have become of me,” Cheryl whispers. “Had Aunt Alice said no.”

 

Toni presses another kiss, this time to Cheryl's forehead.

 

“I don't inherit this house until I turn eighteen. Because no lawyer was going to grant me emancipation status while I was in a state sponsored group home, for dismissed charges of arson due to post traumatic stress, to speed up that process.”

 

Cheryl sighs.

 

“Besides,” she goes on. “Even if that did happen, I would have been here all alone, and I don't think I could have gotten through this last year without them. Or the Serpents. Or you.”

 

Toni smiles softly.

 

“Now look at you,” she begins. “Bad ass biker babe. Has grown men trembling before your very words.”

 

Cheryl laughs, before leaning closer for a proper kiss.

 

“I'm glad for it,” she assures. “All of it.”

 

Toni grins, going for another kiss.

 

“Even me?”

 

Cheryl sighs again, ducking her head to rest between Toni's neck and shoulder.

 

“Especially you.”

 

/\

 

Two days later Cheryl is standing by a bend in Sweetwater River, twisting the burner phone in hand, eyes scanning the forest that surrounds.

 

She, Toni, and Betty had snuck back into the Whyte Wyrm the day before, to fetch the emergency box of them hidden away in one of the walls. Luckily it escaped detection from the cops, but only one of the phones inside actually worked. She held onto it and just a few hours later, received a text telling her by name to meet at this time, in this location.

 

Toni and Fangs hide among the trees, in case of a setup or if anything else goes wrong. Betty stayed back at Thistlehouse to keep the troops in line because, crisis or not, no one is going to step out of it with FP's surrogate daughter.

 

The phone chimes in hand, a new message telling her to proceed to a bench further down the trail, and she's not the least bit surprised to see FP sitting there waiting.

 

“I told you to come alone,” he admonishes as she takes a seat.

 

“Right,” she dismisses. “Because nothing says 'trap' like clandestine phone messages telling you to come alone.”

 

FP smirks, giving a playful nudge with his shoulder.

 

“We were set up,” he states, looking out at the river.

 

“Obviously,” Cheryl replies, rolling her eyes.

 

FP turns back to her, his face no longer playful.

 

“Give any thought as to who?”

 

“Tall Boy left the bar a conspicuous amount of time before we got raided,” she answers. “And we put the feelers out for anyone who isn't sitting in a jail cell right now, but he hasn't been seen or heard from since.”

 

FP nods his agreement.

 

“I was leaning that way myself.”

 

They're both quiet a moment.

 

“I think Penny is in on it too,” she offers up when the moment passes.

 

“What makes you think that?”

 

“Tall Boy isn't smart enough to pull something like this off on his own. Police need more just cause than the word of a disgruntled Serpent to orchestrate a raid of that size.”

 

FP looks almost proud.

 

“You've got a good head on your shoulders, kid.”

 

Cheryl fights the blush creeping into her cheeks.

 

“She is in on it,” he confirms. “Which is why I've been in the wind. She doesn't know where I am, which keeps her looking for me, and not the rest of you.”

 

Cheryl likes to think she can understand that reasoning, but something about it doesn't quite click.

 

“Cousin Betty and Aunt Alice have been so worried.”

 

FP takes a deep breath, and runs a hand through his hair.

 

“Yeah, I feel like a horse's ass about that, but-”

 

“Why do you hate her so much? Cheryl interrupts.

 

He looks to her sharply.

 

“Penny?”

 

“Yes, Penny.”

 

FP contemplates the question for a good few minutes. Cheryl can see him ask himself just how much he wants to tell her. How much information he'll let her be privy too.

 

“I screwed up once. Hell, more than once. But this one time so bad, I felt like I needed to consult an attorney. Lucky me, we had one of our own to handle all our affairs.”

 

Cheryl sees the rage begin to cloud his eyes.

 

“What's the fifth law?”

 

“I'm sorry?”

 

“The fifth law.”

 

“A serpent never betrays his own,” comes out of her mouth automatically.

 

“Penny Peabody used a mistake I made as leverage to lord over me whenever she wants something. Wants the Serpents to cross a line we never would otherwise. Now she's finally gotten bored with the little accommodations we make, and wants the whole damn club for herself.”

 

Cheryl takes in this new information with a nod.

 

“Why me?” she asks softly.

 

“What?”

 

“Why am I playing the role of your second, and not Betty? She's been a Serpent longer. She's practically your daught-”

 

“Betty's skill set is different than yours.”

 

Cheryl eyes narrow.

 

“Am I supposed to know what you mean by that?”

 

He smirks again. God, is this all it took for Aunt Alice to fall for him? Because he does it so much it must work some kind of magic.

 

“It means, Betty is a smart girl, who is damn good at getting herself out of trouble. But you-”

 

Cheryl waits for his answer with baited breath.

 

“-are a smart girl, who is damn good at not getting caught.”

 

/\

 

They find Tall Boy holed up in some no tell motel over in Midvale.

 

Idiot thought well enough to lay low like they had, but not to the point where he should have ditched his bike for another. Jigsaw and Gearbox stand on each side, hands gripping the man's elbows in case he tries to bolt. Beer cans are strewn about the room, the smell of stale alcohol prevalent with every breath taken, as Cheryl's nose scrunches in disgust.

 

The man doesn't look like he's going to put up a fight, but she doesn't trust his body language, keeping her distance. Toni, Betty, and Fangs flank her on each side, ready to defend should things go sideways.

 

“Well,” she begins, though he'd rather stare down at the floor instead of acknowledge her. “Have you anything to say for yourself?”

 

Tall Boy mumbles something no one quite hears.

 

“Come again?”

 

Finally his head lifts toward her, anger and dismissal all over his weathered features, just as it had been the day she started helping the Serpents with their heavy lifting.

 

“I don't answer to you,” he repeats clearly. “I don't care how highly FP thinks of you. You're just a kid. What do you know about anything?”

 

Cheryl can see Toni and Betty tense up, ready to shoot him down, but she throws up her hands in a placating gesture to each.

 

“Don't you know?” she mocks. “Kids are the future.”

 

She looks to her friends.

 

“And that we are. Especially to this organization. I almost pity you for not seeing it.”

 

Tall Boy snorts loudly.

 

“Little bitch,” he spits. “I don't need your pity, your ideas, or whatever else you think you've got to offer.”

 

He looks to each man holding him back.

 

“You really gonna stand there and tell me you're okay with being subordinate to some high school skirt?”

 

Neither Jigsaw nor Gearbox have a chance to answer, when Toni is the one to lose her cool.

 

“So that's what this is about?” she snaps. “Your archaic, misogynistic idea of how this club should operate, or what it should be?”

 

Toni breaks away from the group, clocking Tall Boy square across the jaw.

 

“Our numbers are decimated!” she shouts. “Half our people are in jail because of what you did!”

 

She punches him again and no one moves to stop her.

 

“My best friend is rotting in juvie right now, and for what?”

 

Tall Boy doesn't answer.

 

“For what?!”

 

Toni steps back, breathing heavily, the rage seeping out of her with each exhale.

 

“You would rather destroy what we had, than face some inevitable change, you never had control over in the first place.” She spits at his feet. “You disgust me.”

 

With that she storms out of the room, and Cheryl wants so badly to go after her, but she looks to Cousin Betty instead who immediately follows. Once she's gone Cheryl's attention focuses back to Tall Boy.

 

“You're out,” she states calmly. “Excommunicated.”

 

She takes a step closer.

 

“And before you go on about a vote, or some such nonsense, I have FP's proxy. I have the Serpents proxy. No one is going to speak for you.”

 

Leaning down so that their faces are just inches apart, she smiles sweetly at him.

 

“The deepest pit in hell is reserved for those who betray.”

 

She reaches up and flicks him on the nose.

 

“I'll see you burn there, Judas.”

 

Standing up straight, she nods at Jigsaw and Gearbox, then to Fangs. She leaves the room to the sounds of the three men working him over, and doesn't turn her head back once.

 

/\

 

The stream of hot water cascades over her face, as she stands completely still in the shower, trying to quiet her mind if only for a few minutes. The burner phone rests on the bathroom sink, awaiting FP's go ahead message for taking down Penny, but she wishes it to remain silent.

 

While she's always worn the badge of HBIC proudly, the burden of it has never been carried on as long as it has been the last week or so. There were always moments where she could decompress, find her bearings, and begin again. No so with the crisis at hand, the cracks are really starting to show, and she has no idea how to begin to seal them up again.

 

Tears slide down her cheeks, grateful to the shower head for simply washing them away, as she tries to keep her breathing slow and steady. The sound of the bathroom door opening carries over the rush of water, and she informs whoever the interloping pervert trying to sneak a peak, that it's occupied.

 

The door clicks closed again, but Cheryl can see the outline of a person through the shower curtain.

 

“I said occupied,” she repeats, voice full of warning.

 

“And I heard you,” comes Toni's voice, right before she slips into the shower. “Just didn't pay it any mind.”

 

Cheryl smiles, before a fresh wave of tears begin to fall, and Toni instantly pulls her close.

 

“Hey,” she coos gently. “It's okay, baby. Whatever is bothering you, we can handle it together.”

 

Water trickles along Cheryl's forehead, as she nods against her girlfriend's shoulder.

 

“I don't want to talk about it,” she informs. “Please... Please don't ask me to.”

 

“That's fine,” Toni complies. “Really. We don't have to talk.”

 

Cheryl's fingers spin slow circles on Toni back as she nods again.

 

“Here,” Toni begins. “How bout I get you cleaned up?”

 

She reaches behind Cheryl's back for the soap, along with the scrub brush, and slowly works up a lather.

 

“You just stand there,” Toni directs. “I'll take care of everything.”

 

Cheryl shifts back, meeting Toni's eyes, before leaning down for a kiss.

 

“Okay.”

 

/\

 

Penny, for all her holier than thou authoritative pomp, snarls at them like some kind of caged animal. On her knees in the dirt, just outside the door of her makeshift office, surrounded by the Serpents who didn't fall victim to her attempted takeover.

 

Cheryl stands directly in front of the downed woman, with hands on her hips, and ruby red lips curled into a sneer. The little voice inside her head, silent since Mommy walked away in handcuffs and Thornhill burned to the ground, is livid between her ears.

 

This power hungry bitch underhandedly tried to ruin everything you made for yourself, it screams as Cheryl draws her knife without thinking. Penance must be paid, it continues, as the blade snaps out toward Penny's face.

 

“Well, well Cheryl Blossom,” she taunts. “Looks like I was right about you.”

 

Righteous retribution, the voice bellows. Eye for an eye. Blood for blood.

 

The knife twitches in Cheryl's hand, and she quickly closes it again, before doing something stupid.

 

“Looks like FP was right about you,” Cheryl shoots back. “A shocking amount of self importance and delusions of grandeur.

 

Penny, despite the circumstances, still finds a way to look smug.

 

“Where is our great leader, huh?” she asks. “Still in hiding? Too afraid to face me, so he has his little pet do the dirty work?”

 

She looks out to all the angry faces staring down at her.

 

“Is this what we've become?” she asks them. “Taking direction from some little girl?”

 

Betty steps forward.

 

“She held us together and you tried to rip us apart,” she informs, then offers a swift kick to Penny's side, and is then quickly brought back in check by Fangs.

 

“Dirty pool, Cooper,” she grunts. “But you always get away with it, don't you? Sweet as pie clouded by that dark side.”

 

Cheryl takes a step closer to Penny.

 

“What is the fifth law?” she asks.

 

Penny doesn't answer, looking momentarily remorseful for the first time.

 

“What's the fifth law?” she asks the Serpents.

 

“A serpent never betrays his own,” they shout in unison.

 

Penny looks down at the dirt, silent.

 

“I wanted better things for this club,” she mutters. “I wanted more-”

 

“Anything you wanted,” Cheryl cuts her off. “Was for yourself.”

 

She takes out her knife again, eyeing the tattoo prevalent on Penny's arm.

 

“W-wait,” Penny stutters, knowing what's about to happen. “Don't you want to know what I have on FP? It involves you, after all.”

 

The tip of the blade teases along one of the snake heads etched into Penny's skin.

 

“About your brother,” Penny goes on.

 

Cheryl breaks the skin, a thin stream of blood sliding down, as Penny hisses against the sting.

 

“If you're talking about the video you have of FP cleaning up my brother's body after Daddy shot him, I'm already aware.”

 

Penny's eyes widen, her last big play falling flat.

 

“We had a nice long chat about it, didn't we FP?”

 

Penny looks over Cheryl's shoulder, finally seeing the man she's taunted, but never noticed was actually there.

 

“He says he's never regretted something he'd done so much in his life,” Cheryl continues. “And the crazy thing? I believe him.”

 

Cheryl turns her head toward him.

 

“Do I forgive him? No. Maybe I never will. But he understands that. He's tried to do right by me, after all. Turns out it was him who convinced Aunt Alice to take me in. Some kind of reparation he was hoping to make, and isn't it the funniest thing that it worked?”

 

Cheryl takes her knife away, before reaching into her jacket and pulling out a card, to slip into Penny's pocket.

 

“Your services are no longer needed,” she informs. “We've acquired a new lawyer. Old family friend, actually. Who I dare say, is far more competent than you ever claimed to be.”

 

Cheryl smiles slowly.

 

“Conjecture and hearsay,” she echoes Penny's words back at her. “That's what the 'fraudulent' evidence you provided the Sheriff's department will amount to. Our girl will take it apart handily.”

 

“Meaning?”

 

“Meaning we'll have our numbers back shortly, and this coup d'etat of yours? Will have been for nothing.”

 

She rises to her feet.

 

“You were right,” she says. “I've got a bright future ahead of me, but you? Not so much.”

 

Cheryl exits the circle, quickly followed by Toni and Betty, each girl taking one of her hands as Penny's screams carry off into the night.

 

/\

 

“So the two of you are finally official?” Toni asks.

 

Cheryl's head rests upon her hand, elbow perched on the table of a booth at Pop's, smiling at Cousin Betty's apple red cheeks from announcing that Veronica Lodge is her girlfriend. The brunette just makes that flush deepen, leaning over to press a quick kiss against those cheeks, as Betty's head dips down to hide her smile.

 

“Yeah,” she mumbles happily.

 

Which then makes Veronica and Toni laugh, while Cheryl at Betty catch each others eyes, a slow smile curling the redhead's lips.

 

“Happy for you,” Cheryl mouths across the table.

 

“Thanks,” Betty silently returns.

 

“Okay, this is cause for celebration,” Toni pipes up. “We're gonna need some sugar over here. What'll it be? Pie? Milkshakes? Orange slush?”

 

“Milkshakes,” Betty and Veronica say in chorus, which only makes Toni laugh again, as Cheryl rolls her eyes.

 

“Please don't be one of those couples,” she decries.

 

Veronica beams at Betty.

 

“Can't be helped,” she insists.

 

“Ugh, disgusting,” Cheryl teases back, to which Toni bumps her shoulder.

 

-

 

“I'm uh, going to be gone all night,” Betty says to Cheryl, halfway getting into Veronica's car. “Cover for me?”

 

Cheryl huffs playfully.

 

“Just don't make a habit out of it, okay?”

 

“Thanks Cheryl,” Betty replies. “You're the best.”

 

“I know.”

 

Veronica's engine roars to life, the car about to pull away when Toni places her hand on the door.

 

“Wait,” she delays. “Kevin said something about your dad being a heavy hand with your suitors. So forgive me for worrying about our girl here.”

 

Veronica dismisses the statement with a wave of her hand, but Betty's eyes widen in embarrassment.

 

“Don't worry about Daddy,” she says easily. “While he is one hundred percent accepting of my sexuality, he's kind of backward in thinking that boys are more dangerous than girls.”

 

She shifts into gear, tearing off for the road, as Cheryl and Toni watch the car quickly speed from sight.

 

“Maybe it's her we need to worry about,” Toni suggests.

 

“Betty's a big girl,” Cheryl dispels. “She can take care of herself.”

 

Toni smirks, reaching for Cheryl's hand. This is just what she needed. Some semblance of normalcy, after the nightmare of these last few days has finally ended.

 

“What do you want to do now?” she asks. “Drag Race is on in twenty minutes, should we head home?”

 

Home, Cheryl muses, giving Toni's hand a squeeze. What a long, strange journey it's been to find hers.

 

Down on the Southside, of a little town called Riverdale.

 

 


End file.
